Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Blogger repeats canard that rape claims are disbelieved

A blogger recently posted a piece that was little more than a collection of rape myths, modern day Chicken Little fables concocted by the sexual grievance industry and handed down like campfire ghost stories to a public all too willing to suspend its disbelief for a good rape scare. Among other assertions posited by that blogger is the following: "False accusations are in many ways the reverse of rape cases. Rape as a crime tends to be underreported and disbelieved. Stories of false accusations, on the other hand, seem to be both widely believed and incredibly common . . . ."

Sigh. How can we say this? The blogger is simply wrong, and that's not just my "opinion." We study this issue extensively and suspect we are qualified to assert, without fear of plausible contradiction, that this blogger got it exactly backwards.

Yesterday, we posted (yet again) about the prevalence of false rape claims, and have even added a permanent link on the right side of this page about it. We won't deal with that again in this post.

We've also written extensively about the tendency of the public to automatically believe even far-fetched allegations of rape without any supporting evidence beyond the accuser's say so. Does that blogger not know of America's painful history of overreacting to rape claims? It was such a problem at one time that one American President focused on it during his State of the Union Address. Has that blogger never heard of the countless innocent men falsely accused of rape who were hanged by vigilante mobs? While that issue is often couched in terms of racial strife, it is much more than that. This blog is replete with modern day instances of falsely accused men -- black and white and every color in between -- being chased, being beaten, and even being killed over what turned out to be a false rape claim.

This blog is also replete with examples of young men being arrested and jailed, sometimes with disastrous consequences for them, over rape charges that were out-and-out fabrications, and that could have been easily disproved with even modest investigation. (I am working on an extensive post about one such case -- the Hofstra false rape case -- for the upcoming first anniversary of that awful claim.) The fact is, law enforcement too often allows itself to be used as little more than muscle for rape liars. And the news media too often allows itself to be nothing more than stenographers for police, ever eager to boost its ratings with some good old fashioned rape hysteria.

But rape claims tend to be disbelieved? Seriously? The fact is, rape claimants are automatically wrapped in the garb of victimhood by the news media, and a gullible public eats up those stories and accepts them as fact -- because, after all, "it's in the newspaper." And make no mistake, rape accusers are wrapped in the garb of victimhood not just in subtle ways, but in blatant, almost over-the-top, ways. They are routinely referred to as "victims." It matters not at all to the Fourth Estate that if an accuser is a "victim," that means the man or boy she accused must be a rapist. Due process be damned.

Don't believe me? The following are from news stories published just today -- and it is only 8:30 am, Eastern Prevailing Time, here in the US:

How about this story: "Woodstock Police have made an arrest in the rape of a teenager last week. 20-year-old Edward Rogers has been charged with raping the teen at the Weatherstone subdivision off of Highway 92. 'It was pretty easy to track him down,' police spokeswoman Brittany Duncan tells WSB. 'They just followed up on a few leads concerning his whereabouts. They just interviewed the victim, then interviewed him.'" (Emphasis added.)

Or this headline: "Victim: Suspect claimed he had injured baby, then assaulted her."

Or this story: "POLICE are investigating the alleged rape of a teenage girl in a town-centre graveyard. . . . . The exact time of the attack is unclear because the 18-year-old victim did not dial 999 immediately, instead contacting a family member who alerted the police. The victim lives in Surrey and the matter was initially reported to officers there before being handed to Sussex Police at 3.55am. Police say the alleged attacker is known to the victim. A Crawley man, 24, was arrested at around 10am yesterday and was still being questioned by detectives as the News went to press yesterday afternoon. The victim, who is described as "extremely distressed", is helping police with the investigation. Officers remained on guard at the graveyard, near County Mall. Anyone with information on the alleged sex attack is asked to call police on 0845 60 70 999, quoting serial 180 of August 24."

Or this headline: "I accepted Lamptey-Mills’ sex offer, it was not rape – Victim."

Or this excerpt from a news story: "A Chattanooga man already facing a rape charges, has now been arrested for child rape. Edward Collins was arrested last week. The victim is a boy, who says Collins entered his bedroom and assaulted him from behind."

Or this excerpt from a news story: "An Indian national jailed for brutally raping a young university student used his victim to re-impose control over women, a court has heard."

Or this excerpt from a news story: ". . . The victim’s brother was working at Enterprise Rental in Wichita Kansas when he recognized Latham’s sister who rented a car from the business. He testified the sister told him where Latham lived and he called authorities. The victim is now 33-years-old and lives out of state. She took the stand today and testified Latham started molesting her during the first week he moved into their house when she was five-years-old."

Or this excerpt from a news story: "A 25-year-old air hostess has accused her boyfriend of raping her. A complaint in this regard was registered at the Sarkhej police station late on Tuesday night by the victim. . . . According to the victim, she used to study in an institute to prepare for her dream job — becoming an air hostess. Later, she also had taught at the same institute."

Depressed yet? Need I go on searching for more stories? In the court of last resort -- our daily newspapers -- the rape trial is over even before it has begun. The unnamed rape accuser is a "victim," the readily identified man or boy she accused must be a rapist, and bloggers feel perfectly justified insisting that this incontrovertible fact just isn't so. Just another day in our False Rape Society.